- Iraq has claimed US Apache helicopters attacked a neighbourhood
in the central city of Hillah, killing 33 people, including children.
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- They also said that more than 300 had been injured in
the attack.
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- US Central Command said it was investigating, but said
no Apaches could have been involved.
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- Iraqi officials took reporters to the city 55 miles south
of Baghdad and showed them bodies of people killed in what they said was
a US attack.
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- One man, Kazem Mohammed, said he was on the road from
Nasiriyah, heading to Hillah when the attack occurred. He said 11 of his
relatives were killed when the vehicle they were riding in was hit.
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- He said the dead included six of his children, his parents
and his wife.
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- Hillah, which lies on the Euphrates River near the ruins
of ancient Babylon, is believed by the allies to be home to a camp for
Saddam's Fedayeen, a loyalist militia used to combat internal unrest and,
in recent days, harass American and British forces.
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- Hillah is a few miles south-east of Hindiyah, site of
a battle between US and Iraqi forces on Monday.
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- At the Al-Jamhouri hospital in Hillah, journalists accompanied
by Iraqi officials saw bodies that included toddlers and a baby of no more
than five or six months.
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- A Central Command spokesman in Qatar, Lieutenant Commander
Charles Owens, said coalition forces had ruled out any possibility that
an Apache was involved.
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- http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/24by7panews/page.
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